Shadow or Knuckles?
by Sonic.stories.here
Summary: Rouge is still trying to decide who she loves, Knuckles, or Shadow? Who will she chose? Who's heart will she break? Read to find out.
1. Chapter 1

Sonic was having a Christmas party and so far, nothing had gone wrong. _"I think I'll finally have a party that doesn't end in disaster"_ He thought. He went over to where the snack bar was. He grabbed the jug of eggnog and went to pour himself a glass. Nothing came out. He looked to see the jug was empty. Everyone seemed to be doing fine. _"I guess I can run out and get another jug right quick"_ Sonic thought. He went to the front door, put on a jacket, then bolted out the door. As he ran along he admired how everyone had their houses decorated. It didn't take long for sonic to get to the mall. He quickly ran into the aisle where the eggnog was. _"Please let there be a jug left"_ Sonic thought to himself as he looked up and down the aisle. There was one left. As fast as he could he grabbed it and ran to checkout. He gave the cashier 3 gold rings then headed home. As he was running home he saw someone riding a motorcycle. He ran up beside him and saw a weird red symbol spray painted on the side, Shadows symbol. Sonic waved to try and get Shadows attention. Shadow looked over. He was wearing his black motorcycle helmet and his leather jacket. "WHERE ARE YA HEADED TO?!" Sonic yelled over the sound of the motorcycle engine. Shadow pointed ahead to Sonic's house. _"Why is he going to my house?" _Sonic thought. As soon as they got to Sonic's house, sonic ran over to Shadow and said "What are you doing here? I thought you didn't like parties." Shadow took off his helmet and shot sonic an annoyed look and said "Rouge kept telling me to come" Sonic smiled at Shadow "Since she isn't dating Knuckles, are you going to ask her out?" He said. Shadow started to blush "N-no" He said. Sonic walked up to him "You and Rouge are meant to be, are going to man up and tell her, or continue to hide your feelings?" He said. "I'm getting dating advice from someone who doesn't even have a girlfriend" Shadow said as he walked inside. Sonic followed him in. Rouge looked up and saw Shadow "You did come!" she said happily as she gave him a hug. Shadow was frozen to the spot in embarrassment. He could feel his cheeks burning. Sonic bent over laughing. "SHUTUP!" Shadow yelled. He walked over to the couch and sat down. Sonic was about to apologize to Shadow when he heard a knock at the door. He ran over and opened it to see Knuckles outside. "Hey Knuckles, come on in" He said as he held the door open. The second Shadow saw Knuckles walk over to Rouge he thought _"Who does she love, me or him?" _He looked to see Knuckles hugging Rouge, talking to her, making her laugh. He couldn't take it anymore; he got up and went out on the front porch. Rouge looked up to see shadow go outside. "So, no more taking the master emerald ok?!" Knuckles said. Rouge simply ignored him. In the kitchen, Sonic had just gotten the Christmas ham out of the oven. After letting the ham cool, Sonic leaned out of the kitchen and yelled "GUYS, THE HAM IS READY!" Knuckles immediately got up and ran into the dining room. Rouge was about to follow when she remembered Shadow was still outside. She looked back to see he was still sitting out in the cold. Rouge went outside and sat down next to Shadow. "Hey, the ham is ready" she said. "Not hungry" Shadow replied. "Come on, let's go back inside" She said. "No" Shadow said back. "Why not?" Rouge asked "Stay out here with me and you'll see" Shadow said. Rouge sat out in the cold with Shadow. She felt herself starting to shiver. Shadow looked over and saw rouge was cold. He stood up, took off his jacket, and handed it to her. "Thanks" Rouge said as she put it on. Shadow then pointed out into the night. "What?" rouge asked "Look" Shadow said. She looked to see snow falling. And with the moonlight reflecting off of them, it looked like diamonds falling from the sky. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. "It's so pretty" Rouge said. She looked back over at Shadow; he was still staring at the falling snow. She smiled, and leaned on his shoulder. Rouge looked up and for once, she saw Shadow smiling too. "Now will you come inside?" she asked. "*sigh* Fine" shadow said. They both got up and went back inside. Shadow sat back down on the couch and Rouge went into the kitchen to get some food. She sat down in a chair next to Knuckles. Sonic looked down the table and asked Rouge, "Where were you?" She looked back at Shadow sitting on the couch. "Nowhere" she said. Knuckles saw her looking at Shadow "_I know she was a robot then, but I'm sure she still loves me" _He thought. Knuckles stretched and put his arm across her shoulders. She looked up at him and gave a little smile, then looked away. "Hey, I was hoping you would come to the café with me tomorrow, will you?" Knuckles asked. Rouge looked back up at him "Um, sure, what time?" she asked. "I'll come pick you up at noon" He said. "Ok" She said as she looked away again. _"Why is it always when Shadow is around Knuckles is nice to me?"_ She thought. After she was done eating, Rouge walked back over to the couch and sat down next to Shadow. "It's getting kind of late; I think I'm going to head out, need a ride home?" Shadow asked. "I guess so, I don't have any other way home other than flying" She said. She followed Shadow out and saw him hop on his motorcycle. "Here" he said as he handed her his helmet. She put it on and sat behind him. He started to drive down towards the road. He hit a small bump in the road. Rouge quickly reached forward and held onto Shadow. He blushed a bit, but then quickly went back to driving his motorcycle. As he drove along, he thought _"I really want to spend more time with her…I know, I'll invite her to have lunch with me tomorrow. I'll take her to the café, they have the best food" _When he finally stopped in front of rouges house, he looked back at rouge "Were here" he said. She hopped off, gave shadow his helmet back, said thank you, and then walked toward her house. "_It's now or never" _He thought. "H-hey rouge, um, I was kinda wondering if you, uh, wanted to have lunch with me tomorrow. Maybe at the café…I-if you want to go" He said. "_I sounded like such an idiot, she would never go to lunch with a guy like me" _Shadow thought. She looked back to see Shadow was blushing. "Oh sure. I'll meet you there" she said while smiling. "O-oh, ok. See you then" he said as he hopped back on his motorcycle and rode off. As he drove home, he had never felt so happy, "SHE SAID YES!" he yelled to himself as he rode along. He was so happy; he let go of the handles, stood up on the seat, and rode along on his motorcycle like a skateboard, doing all sorts of tricks. All the time, he had a smirk on his face. It had been a while since Shadow had felt happy, he liked it. When he got home, he parked his motorcycle, and ran inside. He went upstairs and hopped in bed. _"Tomorrow has to be perfect, no screwing up" _He thought to himself as he fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Shadow woke up and looked over at his clock; the time was 11:30. _"SHOOT IN GONNA BE LATE!" _He thought as he threw back the covers. He grabbed his shoes and gloves and ran downstairs. As he ran, he dropped one of his gloves and slipped on it. He made a grab for the handrail but missed. He tumbled down the stairs and landed on his back. Finally, he got to his feet, put on his shoes and gloves, then took off again. He grabbed his jacket and ran out to his garage. He hopped on his motorcycle and started it up. He was about to head out when it turned itself off. "No….NO NO NO!" Shadow shouted as he tried to get his motorcycle to work. He checked the gas, empty. _"Crap, I must have run out of gas when I was riding around last night…" _He thought to himself. He quickly hopped off, and using his flame skates, bolted out to the road. As he ran along, the flames from his shoes melted the fallen snow. Shadow heard another set of footsteps following him. He looked back to see Sonic following him. "Hey buddy!" he said. "Don't you have anything better to do other than following me?" Shadow asked. Sonic simply laughed, and ran down a different road. Shadow could see the café. He was running at full speed, he had never felt so happy. He would actually get to spend some quality time with Rouge. Smiling, he ran up to the front of the café. He could see Rouge sitting in the window seat. He stopped and looked closer. She was sitting there…..with Knuckles. Shadow blinked to see if what he was seeing was real. _"But, she said…" _Shadow thought. Rouge looked over and saw Shadow. Her eyes went wide. She looked like she was trying to say something through the glass. Shadow turned and walked away, he could feel tears forming in his eyes. Right as he started to walk away, rain had started to lightly fall. She immediately hopped up and ran out after Shadow. "SHADOW WAIT!" She yelled as she ran after him. Knuckles ran out and followed her. "ROUGE, WHATS GOING ON?" he yelled as he ran after her. Rouge grabbed Shadows shoulder. "Please, let me explain" she said. "Explain what? We were having a date" Knuckles said. "She said she would have a date with me today" Shadow said. "What? Rouge….you… lied to us…"Knuckles said. "Wait, its not-"she started to say. "DON'T BOTHER!" Shadow yelled. He had given up on trying to hold back his tears. He could feel them flowing down his face. "I just…can't believe you….." He said. He pulled away from her and ran away. "WAIT!" she yelled. She looked back, Knuckles was gone too. "No…this can't be happening!" Rouge yelled. She fell to her knees crying. "What have I done…" she said. As she was crying, she felt someone put their hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Sonic was standing over her. "What's wrong?" he asked. "I am such an idiot" she said, trying to hide her face with her wing. Sonic knelt down next to her. "How so?" he asked. "If you had to choose between two people, and you couldn't decide…what would you do?" she asked looking up at him. "That's a choice you have to make yourself" Sonic said as he stood up. He handed Rouge an umbrella then ran off. She stood up and started to walk home. Rouge couldn't help but feel sad for both Knuckles and Shadow. "_They probably think I'm a jerk…I just…couldn't choose" _She thought as she walked along. Shadow was walking in Emerald Park. He could feel tears still flowing down his face. He sat down on a bench and watched the rain fall. His quills and fur were soaked. He buried his face into his hands crying. Then out of nowhere, he could no longer feel the ground under his feet. He looked down to see Knuckles had lifted the bench off the ground. "ITS ALL YOUR FAULT!" he yelled as he threw the bench at a tree. Shadow quickly jumped off before the bench crashed. As soon as he landed on the ground, Knuckles threw a punch at him. Shadow caught his fist and held it in place. Knuckles kept trying to free his hand from Shadows grip. He then took his other hand and punched Shadow in the chest. Shadow let go of Knuckles hand and bent over in pain. He looked up just in time to see Knuckles kick him in the face. He fell backwards and landed on his back. Knuckles went to kick him again, but Shadow had teleported away. "WHERE ARE YOU COWARD!" he shouted. Shadow jumped out and kicked Knuckles in the back, sending him to the ground. Shadow tried to run past him to get home, but Knuckles grabbed his leg and tripped him. Knuckles pulled Shadow towards him and was about to punch him in the face. "If it weren't for you, me and Rouge could be happy!" he yelled as he punched at Shadow. Shadow quickly reached up, grabbed Knuckled by the chest and threw him to the side. Shadow stood up. "Funny, that's exactly what I was going to say to you" he said. He teleported, kicked Knuckles back to the ground, then teleported again. Shadow started to run toward his house. He looked back to see Knuckles was nowhere in sight. He could see his house in the distance. As he ran along, he could feel pain still in his chest from Knuckles punching him. As soon as he was inside, he fell to his knees. "NOT AGAIN!" he yelled as he cried and pounded the ground with his fists. Knuckles quickly got to his feet to see that Shadow was gone. "GRAAAAH!" He yelled as he punched at a tree. "She was with me first!" He yelled as he sat down against the tree. "Shadow…you will pay…" he said.


	3. Chapter 3

_Flashback…_

"_SHADOW WAIT!" She yelled as she ran after him. Knuckles ran out and followed her. "ROUGE, WHATS GOING ON?" he yelled as he ran after her. Rouge grabbed Shadows shoulder. "Please, let me explain" she said. "Explain what? We were having a date" Knuckles said. "She said she would have a date with me today" Shadow said. "What? Rouge….you… lied to us…"Knuckles said. "Wait, its not-"she started to say. "DON'T BOTHER!" Shadow yelled. He had given up on trying to hold back his tears. He could feel them flowing down his face. "I just…can't believe you….." He said. He pulled away from her and ran away. "WAIT!" she yelled. She looked back, Knuckles was gone too. "No…this can't be happening!" Rouge yelled. She fell to her knees crying. "What have I done…" she said._

Rouge woke up from her nightmare only to remember that the events of it actual happened. She sat up and looked around her room. The time was 12:35 at night. Rouge hugged her knees up to her chest and closed her eyes.

"_DON'T BOTHER!" Shadow yelled. He had given up on trying to hold back his tears. He could feel them flowing down his face. "I just…can't believe you….." He said. He pulled away from her and ran away._

Rouge remembered seeing Shadow crying. She could feel herself starting to cry as well. She got out of bed and walked over to the window. From her house, she could see the city. It looked so peaceful at night.

"_What? Rouge….you… lied to us…"Knuckles said._

Rouge leaned up against the window. "I'm so sorry…" she said. She could feel a tear rolling down her cheek. Rouge looked back out the window to see something out in the distance. She could see smoke coming from one of the buildings. She quickly got out of her pajamas, put on her normal wear, and opened the window. She jumped out and flew towards the city. It was rather cold out that night. She shivered as she approached the burning building. As she flew she could see the cops were evacuating everyone out of the building. She went to land on the ground but then she saw two people still on the roof. Rouge quickly flew up and landed on the roof. She looked to see who the two people were. "No..." she said as she covered her mouth. Shadow and Knuckles were fighting on the burning building. Rouge was about to go stop them when she heard "YOU NEVER EVEN LOVED HER!" come from Knuckles. Shadow lunged at Knuckles and took him to the ground "LIAR!" He yelled. Knuckles punched up at Shadow and sent him flying backwards. Shadow quickly got to his feet and looked quite exhausted. Knuckles ran at him ready to punch him. Shadow quickly teleported and punched him in the back. Knuckled went down. He looked up to see Shadow standing over him. He swung his leg and tripped Shadow. He climbed on top of him and grabbed his neck. Shadow went to reach up and throw him off, but Knuckles was using his legs to hold Shadows arms down. Shadows vision was starting to blur, he couldn't breathe. "C-chaos..." he choked out. Knuckles tightened his grip. Shadow kept trying to get the last word out. "Nice try!" Knuckles said. Shadow could feel himself getting weaker and weaker. "BLAST!" He yelled with all his strength. Rouge was about to go help Shadow when she saw the explosion go off. The waves from the blast knocked Rouge off her feet. She landed on her back and felt something crush her wing. Rouge looked over to see a piece of cement had landed on her wing. She tried to lift it up, but it was too heavy. As soon as the smoke cleared, Shadow was standing it the middle of a crater formed in the building. He could feel himself losing consciousness from using so much power when feeling so weak. He fell to his hands and knees and couldn't control his heavy breathing. Knuckles looked around. He punched his way out of a pile of debris and looked around. He could see Shadow was weak. He ran over to where the crater was and slid down to the bottom. He stood over Shadow and laughed. "Look at the ultimate life form now" He said. Shadow tried to stand up but was pushed to the ground by Knuckles. "Victory is mine" he said. Rouge looked over to see she was really close to the edge of the building. She could see the ledge was breaking, she was going to fall. "HELP!" she yelled. But Knuckles was too busy gloating in his victory to hear. But Shadow did. He could barely hear it though. He knew that voice. _"ROUGE!" _He thought. He tried to get up again, but Knuckles used his foot to kick him back to the ground. He knew he had to do something. He quickly reached down towards his inhibitor rings. He took one off and went for the other. Knuckles saw what he was doing and pinned his other hand to the ground. Shadow looked down and saw a burning pile of debris. He kicked at it and some of the sparks hit Knuckles in the leg. He picked his leg up and spun around. Shadow took the opportunity and removed his other ring. The second it was off he stood up and ran out of the crater. He got out just in time to see the ledge crumble and fall down taking Rouge with it. "NO!" He yelled as he jumped off after her. Knuckles looked back just in time to see Shadow jump off the edge. Rouge looked up to see Shadow had jumped to try and save her. He reached out, grabbed her arm, pulled her close, and wrapped his arms around her. He looked down, no time for chaos control. He flipped himself so he would hit the ground instead of Rouge. When he hit the ground, he blacked out… 


	4. Chapter 4

Rouge could feel herself falling. "_I'm just getting what I deserve…" _She thought to herself. She closed her eyes. "_Shadow…Knuckles…I'm sorry" _Rouge thought. "NO!" she heard someone yell. She looked to see Shadow had jumped after her. Rouge could see the ground was really close. She felt someone hug her close. She could still feel impact, but it wasn't the ground. Rouge looked to see that Shadow had saved her. He had taken the fall for her._ "Shadow saved me…why?" _She thought. She got up and looked back, Shadow was still down. "Shadow!?" she yelled. He didn't move. Rouge knelt down next to him. "Come on Shadow, wake up!" she yelled while shaking his shoulders. He still didn't move. "Please wake up! SHADOW! Please…" she said. She felt tears starting to roll down her cheeks. Shadow was barely breathing. She held his hand and continued to try and wake him up. "Shadow, I don't know if you can hear me, but…I just want to say I'm sorry…and…" she started to say. She paused to take a breath. Rouge leaned down close to Shadows face. "I love you…" She said as she gave him a kiss on the forehead. Rouge suddenly felt Shadows hand squeeze hers. "Is that a lie too?" he said weakly. She quickly hugged Shadow. "Why would I lie at a time like this" she said. Shadow didn't hug Rouge back. She heard him sigh. "Had knuckles jumped to save you, would you have said you love him too?" He said, still struggling to even speak. Rouge let go and stood back up. "I…" she started to say. "Don't try to explain it. Just be grateful I didn't think about this before I saved you" Shadow said. He attempted to get to his feet, but only ended up falling back down. Rouge ran over to try and help him. "Don't touch me" Shadow said darkly. Rouge quickly took a step back. Shadow finally got to his feet and tried to walk away. He only ended up back on the ground after taking a few steps. Rouge ran back over to try and help him. She reached down to grab Shadows hand. He pulled his hand away. "I don't need your help!" he yelled. Rouge reached down and grabbed his wrist. "Well, I'm not asking you if you want help" she said. Rouge helped Shadow to his feet. "Please just let me help you" she said. Shadow once again pulled away. "I already said I don't want or need any help!" He said. He started to weakly walk down the road. "DID YOU EVER EVEN LIKE ME!?" Rouge yelled at him. Shadow stopped in his tracks and looked back. "No…" he said. Rouge felt a tear in her eye. She ran up to Shadow and slapped him. Shadow was stunned for a second, but then he started laughing. "What's so funny!" she yelled. "Rouge, I don't like you…I never did…but-"Shadow said. Rouge punched him in the chest sending him to his knees. "BUT WHAT!?" she yelled. "You never asked if I loved you" he said smiling. "DO YOU OR DO YOU NOT LOVE ME!" she yelled, getting really frustrated. Shadow stood up, grabbed Rouges wrist and pulled her close. Rouge suddenly was face to face with Shadow. "I've always loved you, from the second I saw you, I just never knew" Shadow said. Rouge looked Shadow in the eye. Those red eyes hid many things from her. They were two deep, red pools of mystery. Shadow released her wrist and went to walk away. Rouge grabbed Shadow by his chest fur and pulled him into a kiss. This really surprised Shadow. He broke the kiss and turned away. "Shadow…I do love you" Rouge said. Shadow continued to look away. She walked up to him and hugged him. He looked down at her, smiled, and hugged her back. Shadow looked over and saw Knuckles standing not too far away. He looked and Shadow, gave a slight smile, and simply nodded. Shadow smiled and nodded back. Knuckles then walked down the street and disappeared into the night. Shadow looked back down at Rouge. Shadow had never felt so happy. Rouge looked back up at Shadow and kissed him again. This time, Shadow kissed her back.

The end…


End file.
